Martinez: Problems in Puerto Rico leave island in limbo

January 10, 2013|Guillermo I. Martinez, Columnist

If one had to choose one word to describe Puerto Rico today, it would be "limbo."

The Island of Enchantment (La Isla del Encanto in Spanish) as many who know it refer to the island, has been going through difficult political, social and economic problems for several decades now. Things are not getting any better.

Jorge Duany, who until recently was interim Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras and now is Director of the Cuban Studies Center at Florida International University, follows Puerto Rican affairs closely.

The information Duany provides, along with information on the island's economy, criminality and political status, paint a sad picture of an island which, until a few decades ago, was the jewel of U.S. policy in Latin America.

It was a time when comparisons between Puerto Rico and Cuba were made often to show how close ties to the United States provided a better standard of living for its citizens than proximity with the Soviet Union did for Cuba.

Mind you, there is still no comparison between Puerto Rico and Cuba today. Puerto Rico, despite all its problems, is light years ahead of Cuba in all regards.

But Puerto Ricans have been plagued by problems that have become more serious since 1996, when the preferential treatment the U.S. gave to American companies who manufactured their products on the island ended.

According to Duany, Puerto Ricans have been having problems since the mid-1970s, but it has become much worse in the last 16 years. In 2011, Puerto Rico broke its own record by logging 1,135 homicides — 30 killings per 100,000 residents. Unemployment has been in double digits for years — it was 13.6 in November.

And politically, Puerto Ricans still cannot decide if they want to remain as they are as a commonwealth of the United States, become a state, or an independent nation. The country is evenly divided between those who favor statehood and those who want to perfect the commonwealth status. Those who want independence are a small minority of the population.

The only consensus among the three mayor political factions is that Puerto Rico wants to remain a Spanish-speaking country with its own traditions and culture. That makes becoming a state that much harder, even if Puerto Ricans decided that is truly what they wanted.

Last November's referendum was a sham in that it did not give Puerto Ricans a real choice. It was manipulated so a majority of those who voted would choose statehood. Nobody in Congress is paying any attention to it.

Things on the island have been so bad, according to Duany, that for the first time since the 1950s Puerto Ricans have been migrating by the thousands. He estimates at least 300,000 left for the New York area or Florida in the first decade of the 21st century. In fact, the population of the island has been declining in recent years.

In January, Alejandro García Padilla, a pro-commonwealth politician, became governor. He replaced Luis Fortuño, who believes statehood is the best answer to the island's problems.

Since the late 1960s, both of the largest political parties on the island have traded places at the helm of the country's politics every four to eight years. Except for the big differences on the issue of status, there is little that either party has been able to do to solve Puerto Rico's problems.

The United States Congress traditionally has said the issue is in the hands of Puerto Ricans. That it will abide by a clear mandate from the island. Duany, however believes it is Congress who should delineate a path for Puerto Ricans — either as a state, a commonwealth or an independent country.

Congress has never authorized a binding referendum or plebiscite on the status issue. Until that happens, it will be hard to solve the island's many problems.